On April 13, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson issued recommendations fully in line with those of the AARO-FAWCO position paper in March 2015 with respect to financial account reporting and the “same country exception” that we have advocated for several years.
Specifically, Ms Olson recommends that:
· filing of FATCA Form 8938 not be required of taxpayers who have timely filed FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) (see position paper, FinCEN section IV), and
· accounts maintained in the country of a filer’s bona fide tax residence abroad not be considered “foreign” for the purposes of reporting by either a foreign financial institution or the individual him/herself (see position paper, FinCEN and FATCA section I).
With, at last, a respected voice in the Administration supporting our positions, we call on all FAWCO members, their family, colleagues and friends, to write to their Congresspersons and Senators, and to the Secretary of the Treasury in support of the recommendations of the National Taxpayer Advocate (see below in detail). In addition, we urge you to write to the office of the National Taxpayer Advocate herself to express your thanks.
Since the enactment of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), overseas Americans have felt like voices in the wilderness, perceived as “tax cheats” because of the financial accounts they must maintain in their countries of residence, and burdened by cumbersome and duplicative reporting requirements.
National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson shows that our advocacy in Washington is not ignored and that respected authorities can adopt positions in the interests of an often-neglected population: Americans living and working abroad, most recently estimated by the State Department at 8 million, equal to the 13th state in terms of population.
Click here for one report on the release from the Taxpayer Advocate’s office.
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